Labour Spokesperson on Housing and Local Government Ciarán Lynch has insisted Housing Minister Batt O'Keeffe bring local authorities to book over their failure to inspect private rented accommodation.

Mr Lynch said: "According to the Department's own statistics, in 2006 the most recent year for which we have figures, Cork County Council only carried out one single inspection of a private rented residential unit. This is despite the fact that there are over 5,700 such properties registered with the council.

"Cork City Council made 780 inspections, but when you consider that there are 8,500 private-rented properties registered in the city, that's woefully inadequate."

The Labour TD also expressed concern that while almost half of those inspected did not meet regulatory requirements, the Department's figures there were no follow-up inspections at all.

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He said: "In Cork City and County, no legal action was initiated against any landlord. We are completely in the dark as to precisely what action is taken by the council once they discover that a house is sub-standard.

"Housing Minister Batt O'Keeffe recently told me in the Dail that responsibility for enforcing the regulations rested with the relevant local authority, supported by a dedicated stream of funding allocated by my Department."

He added: "Given this fact what I want to know now is why is he not on the phone to individual City and County Managers asking them what it is that they are doing with this money, because it seems that whatever they are doing with it, they are not enforcing the regulations".

Despite falls in property prices, Mr Lynch claimed, tenants are forced to pay exorbitant rents in houses and apartments across the country, and as a result of that are very often in a very vulnerable situation.

"These people deserve whatever protection we can give them and they are simply not getting," he said.

"We have seen in recent Prime Time programme problems in the Cork area, where sub-standard properties were being rented out by unscrupulous landlords, with apparent impunity.

"The private rented sector fills an important function providing necessary housing for hundreds of thousands of people. It is unacceptable that despite the legislation in place, the adequate enforcement of standards is still not in place."

(VB/JM)